Some Answers to Your Social Security Benefits Questions
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by: albert.tobega
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Q: I have a business under my name but my spouse runs it. Would I still be eligible to receive Social Security benefits?
A: As defined by the Social Security Administration, disability is the "inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity." What is considered "substantial gainful activity" comes from the National Wage Index, which averages monthly wages across the board. They consider a person to be working any day that he or she "is the owner or part owner of a trade or business even if he or she does not actually work in the trade or business or receive any income from it."
Your business income may affect your social security benefits. If that income goes over the predetermined substantial gainful activity (SGA) level, the SSA may consider it a substantial income. The SSA determines this SGA level by doing a comparison of the income of your business to the income you received before you became disabled, as well as to the income of a healthy individual doing the same business.
Q: What will happen to my claim if I die while in the process of applying for benefits?
A: According to the Social Security Administration, if a person who may be eligible for social security benefits dies (this includes Supplemental Security Income), their survivors may apply for a Lump Sum Death Payment. This means that, if you were to die in the process of applying for social security benefits, your survivors may make a case for the social security benefits you may have earned after the waiting period. To do this, surviving family members need to prove that their deceased relative did or could have qualified for social security benefits in the month that they died.
Lump Sum Death Payment of social security benefits is available only to particular surviving family members. As part of the application process, the SSA will request information about the deceaseds Social Security record and application (if they applied for social security benefits). They will also request evidence of the deceaseds disability beginning at 14 months before the date of death.
Q: If I am receiving social security benefits and I die, what happens to them?
A: A person who has worked and paid social security taxes may be eligible for survivors benefits upon their death. For ones family to be eligible for survivors benefits, up to 10 years of work is needed, depending on ones age. Survivors social security benefits can be paid to:
• A spouse, with full benefits when they reach retirement, or some benefits beginning at age 60 • A disabled spouse aged 50 or over • Children less than 18 years of age (or as old as 19 if they still attend secondary school) • Currently disabled children who were disabled at less than 22 years of age • Dependent parents who are 62 years old or older.
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